I’m a born and bred Southern California girl, who became an unexpected Manitoba girl when I went and fell in love with a Winnipegger. I invite you to join me on this journey of adjustment and adventure as I learn to adapt my passion for cooking, baking, gardening and interior design, to this very different culture and climate. Just click on the ‘follow’ button!

Rainy Day Accomplishments

We get a lot of rainy days here in The Peg in the summertime. I love it, being from an area where precipitation is low causing a drought for the last several years. The prairie rains turn the multitude of trees here exceptional and varied shades of green and one can almost hear our flowers and vegetables giggling with delight as they bathe in fresh, clean water, falling from the heavens. I especially delight in the thunderstorms. I see them as Mother Nature stirring life and energy back into the Earth and its inhabitants when the warm, summer days just make us want to nap in the hammock.

We spend quite a bit of time out in the gardens during clear, sunny days. Planting, pruning, mowing and of course, sun-bathing. Rainy days allow me to focus on indoor projects that I have let fall by the wayside.

Today I have a few good ones under my belt so far.

On days that I am home, I like to have a nice meal waiting for Darren when he arrives home from work for us to enjoy together. Today, I rummaged through the freezer and found a few interesting ingredients. Shrimp, asparagus, and rainbow bell peppers. From the pantry, I gathered some garlic, shallots and fusilli pasta. What can I make with these? I boiled the pasta, sautéed the rest in olive oil and a bit of butter (layering fats makes the dish that much more delish). I added a bit of milk and cornstarch mixture to make a light, creamy sauce and then poured the whole thing over the pasta. I then mixed in a dash of red pepper flakes just to give it a slight kick.

That’s the savory, now for the sweet.

Can’t let a rainy day go by without making some cookies. Oatmeal chocolate chip with hazelnuts should do the trick (again with found items that longed to be used in the pantry). The ‘whirring’ sound of the mixer, the smell of freshly baking cookies in the oven and the vision of raindrops tapping on the window make for quite a cozy kitchen.

Now, to make the rest of the house cozy.

For the past several months, I have been working on some design plans for the interior of our home. Today, a beautiful piece for the living room arrived. A new electric fireplace and mantle! I’m very excited about this. It’s such an amazing feeling to see one’s vision just spring to life! And after a hearty lunch that ended with some tummy-pleasing cookies, Darren is ready to help me put it in place.

Perfect!

Aaaahh…there’s nothing like a hot, steamy mug of accomplishment at tea time.

Hmmm, what might I accomplish tomorrow?

It had long since come to my attention that people of accomplishment rarely sat back and let things happen to them. They went out and happened to things. – Leonardo da Vinci

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